The 2024/25 UEFA European Under-17 Championship round 1 draw, staged on Friday 3 May in Nyon, has launched the competition's new format.

The new eight-team final tournament will be in Albania in 2025.

Round 1 draw

Group 1: England, Sweden, Latvia, Malta

Group 2: Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, Armenia

Group 3: Netherlands, Croatia, Albania (finals hosts), Faroe Islands

Group 4: Belgium, Ukraine, Kosovo, Kazakhstan

Group 5: Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Liechtenstein

Group 6: Hungary, Greece, Romania, Azerbaijan

Group 7: Germany, Czechia, Belarus, Andorra

Group 8: Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Lithuania

Group 9: Italy, Norway, Wales, San Marino

Group 10: Switzerland, Israel, Montenegro, Moldova

Group 11: France, Slovakia, Cyprus, Gibraltar

Group 12. Spain, Iceland, North Macedonia, Estonia

Group 13: Serbia, Türkiye, Bulgaria

Group 14: Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg

Dates/hosts tbc

One team will be selected to host each group. All groups will be played as one-venue mini-tournaments between 1 July and 19 November.

On completion of round 1, all the participating teams will be divided into League A (28 teams – seven groups of four teams) and League B (26 teams – five groups of four teams and two group of three teams) for round 2.

The top two teams in each of the 14 round 1 groups will qualify for League A in round 2, to compete in spring for the seven places alongside hosts Albania in the finals. Teams in League B will compete for promotion to League A for qualifying round 1 of the 2026/27 U19 EURO

Draw procedure

All 54 entering teams are involved in round 1, including Albania, whose final tournament place in 2025 is assured as hosts. They were drawn into 12 groups of four teams and two groups of three teams.

The teams were split into four pots based on their coefficient ranking:

Pot A: Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, England, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland

Pot B: Sweden, Slovenia, Czechia, Norway, Israel, Scotland, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Slovakia, Austria

Pot C: Finland, Belarus, Wales, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia

Pot D: Estonia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Andorra, Lithuania, Moldova, Faroe Islands, Malta, Armenia, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar

On the basis of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, valid at the time of the draw, the following countries could not be drawn into the same group: Spain and Gibraltar, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina

The teams in Pot A were drawn one after another and placed in the first position in Groups 1 to 14 in ascending order.

The teams in Pot B were drawn one after another and each one placed in the second position in Groups 1 to 14 in ascending order.

The teams in Pot C were drawn one after another and each one placed in the third position in Groups 1 to 14 in ascending order.

The teams in Pot D were drawn one after another and each one placed in the fourth position in Groups 1 to 12 in ascending order.

If clashes arose, the team drawn would have been moved to the next available group. The draw would have continued by first filling the slot left vacant. If clashes arose in the last three or four groups, the teams would have been allocated to groups appropriately.

U17 EURO format from 2024/25

Qualifying

Qualifying consists of two stages, now named round 1 (in autumn) and round 2 (in spring). Both rounds are played as single-venue mini-tournaments.

Round 1

All entered teams participate in round 1, including the final tournament hosts (who currently do not take part in qualifying, and who will continue to have their place in the finals assured under the new format). The entrants will be drawn into 14 groups of four or three teams, depending on the number of participating associations.

Following round 1, 28 teams qualify to take part in round 2 League A, with the remainder going into League B.

In future seasons, the results of round 1 will be taken into account for the round 1 draw for the following edition.

Round 2

In League A, the 28 teams will be drawn into seven groups of four. The seven group winners will qualify to join the hosts in the final tournament. If the hosts are among the seven group winners, the best runners-up will also qualify.

The seven teams ranked fourth in the League A groups will be relegated to League B for round 1 of U19 EURO qualifying for the same age cohort (so teams relegated from League A in 2024/25 U17 EURO round 2 will begin 2026/27 U19 EURO round 1 in League B).

In League B, the teams will be drawn into seven groups of four or three, depending on the number of competitors. The seven League B winners will be promoted to League A for round 1 of U19 EURO qualifying for the same age cohort (so teams promoted from League B in 2024/25 U17 EURO round 2 will begin 2026/27 U19 EURO round 1 in League A).

The draw for round 2 will be held in the December following round 1 (eg December 2024 for round 2 of the 2024/25 edition).

Final tournament

The final tournament will involve eight teams from 2025 onwards, initially competing in two groups of four, with the top two in each section progressing to the semi-finals.

World Cup

The FIFA U-17 World Cup is changing from 2025 to become an annual 48-team tournament, for which the 2024/25 U17 EURO will act as Europe's qualifying tournament, with full details of confederation allocations to follow. Qatar has been announced as hosts for the first five annual U-17 World Cups between 2025 and 2029.